Advertisers have relied on many different ways to deliver advertising messages. For example, many advertisements are delivered through broadcast mass media, such as radio and television, or through printed mass media, such as magazines and newspapers. Direct advertising is another popular and often highly effective method because messages are delivered directly to a defined population of consumers. In addition to direct mail and e-mails, other direct advertising methods include dimensional mail, catalogs, and inserts in bills and other mailings.
Despite the many different media available to advertisers, however, there is a continuing need to develop effective, cost efficient methods of advertising. For example, while distribution by broadcast media is relatively inexpensive, the cost of producing entertainment, news and other content to attract an audience for broadcast media can be extremely expensive, and those costs are reflected in advertising fees. Content production costs for printed mass media also can be substantial, and printed mass media can be expensive to produce and distribute. While most direct advertising contains little or no content beyond the advertising message, and thus, involves relatively low content cost, the cost of direct advertising nevertheless can be substantial. Such costs typically include the generation of a mailing list and postage or other delivery costs.
Moreover, a substantial portion, if not the majority of all advertising messages are never viewed by their intended audience for one reason or another. Many consumers receiving the advertisement may have no interest in the advertised good or service, or they may not be able to afford it. There also is a general clutter of advertisements that makes it difficult for a particular ad to capture the attention of consumers, especially if the consumer is distracted or otherwise occupied when the opportunity for viewing the ad arises.
For example, response rates for radio and television advertising typically is under 1%. Although inserts in newspapers and magazines commonly have somewhat higher response rates, on the order of 1-2%, newspaper and magazine advertisements also have very low response rates, usually under 1%. Direct mail, catalogs, and e-mails have average response rates around 2%. The response rates for all of these methods, however, are greatly reduced because the vast majority of the ads are never viewed. For example, most direct mailings are thrown away without ever being opened. Likewise, from 85% to 99% of e-mailings are never opened. Even when presented to a consumer, however, many ads are not really viewed because they are lost in the clutter of many other ads, and this is a common problem with newspaper inserts and some forms of direct mailings.
Thus, most advertising methods are very inefficient and wasteful. The effective cost for each advertising message that is actually communicated to consumers is generally many times higher that the nominal cost per message. Thus, despite, and in part because of the number and variety of conventional methods, advertisers continue to seek more cost effective ways of disseminating advertising messages. In particular, there is a continuing need for more effective and more economical methods for distributing manufacturer coupons.
Many products, such as food and consumer household products, are promoted extensively using manufacturer coupons. Such coupons typically offer a discount on specifically identified products. Consumers may redeem the coupons with merchants selling the product. The merchants in turn are reimbursed by the manufacturer or distributor of the product. The vast majority of manufacturer coupons are redeemed by merchants through a clearing house such as NCH Marketing Services, Deerfield, Ill. The automated processing of such manufacturer coupons essentially requires that they incorporate machine readable indicia, such as UPC bar codes utilizing the UCC/EAN-128 Article Numbering System. Information on standards for manufacturer coupons is publicly available, for example, through Uniform Code Council, Inc., Lawrenceville, N.J., and through Grocery Manufacturers of America, Inc., Washington, D.C.
Manufacturer coupons have been distributed by various methods, including newspaper and other print media inserts, direct mailings, and e-mailings. They also have been distributed as part of “cross ruffing” or “bounce back” offers. Such offers attach or include a coupon for a product in packaging for that product or another product, and many products can be easily adapted for use in carrying coupons. For example, cereal and other food products that are distributed in relatively large packages can easily accommodate manufacturer coupons. Many products, however, have relatively little imprintable area available for a bar code and even minimal product identification as is required to produce a consumer redeemable, manufacturer coupon.
Matchbooks, for example, have long been used to disseminate advertising messages. Very commonly, a sponsor's advertising message is imprinted on the cover of matchbooks, and then the matchbooks are distributed free of charge by or on behalf of the sponsor. While the covers of conventional matchbooks usually have sufficient imprintable area on which a coupon may be provided, they nevertheless are poorly suited for such purposes. The outer face of the cover is usually reserved for the sponsor's branding message. Theoretically, a coupon could be imprinted on the inner face of the cover, but as a practical matter the matches would have to be removed from the cover in order to redeem and process the coupon. If the coupon, i.e., the cover is detached immediately by a consumer it will impair the functionality of the matchbook. On the other hand, considerable time may elapse before the matches are consumed and functionality is no longer an issue, during which time the consumer may loose the matchbook or his enthusiasm for redeeming the coupon, or the coupon may become damaged or soiled. There also is a perception that the matchbook is trash once all the matches have been used, and this too could reduce the rate of redemption if coupons were printed on matchbook covers.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,958,689 to E. Roth discloses matchbooks having an insert. The insert is connected to a base, and the base is stapled within the matchbook between a match comb and the rear panel of a cover. The insert may be detached from the base by tearing along a line of perforations and then removed from the matchbook. The patent suggests that the insert may be imprinted with suitable markings that may be filled in by a consumer to order goods or the like advertised on the matchbook. The matchbooks disclosed in the Roth '689 patent have even greater imprintable area available for advertising messages, although the manufacture of such matchbooks, as compared to conventional matchbook designs, is complicated by the fact that an additional component must be positioned and assembled.
In any event, to date matchbooks have not been used to deliver more extensive and sophisticated advertising messages such as manufacturer and other types of coupons. Moreover, the design of most conventional matchbooks is not such that they can easily, economically, and effectively present to the consumer manufacturer coupons that may be neatly and easily separated for automated processing.
An object of this invention, therefore, is to provide improved methods for directly disseminating advertising messages to consumers of matches and improved matchbooks providing enhanced media for delivery of advertising messages.
It also is an object to provide such improved methods and matchbooks capable of delivering more extensive and sophisticated advertising messages, such as redeemable manufacturer and other types of coupons.
Another object of this invention is to provide improved matchbooks that are capable of delivering extensive and sophisticated advertising messages, such as redeemable manufacturer and other types of coupons, but which can be easily and economically manufactured.
It also is a more specific object of the subject invention to provide improved matchbooks, and especially matchbooks having a coupon, that may be produced by conventional machinery and processes with little or no modification.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such methods and matchbooks wherein all of the above-mentioned advantages are realized.
Those and other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading the following detailed description and upon reference to the drawings.